Results at a glance
in annual deposits from 83 direct deposit switches
in new money deposit accounts
in loan volume originated through cross-sell efforts
increase in customer engagement inside Banno
The challenge
Opening an account was never the hard part. Activation was.
Think Bank was committed to offering new customers the ability to begin a relationship online, with the goal of converting those customers to primary relationships. Helping new customers become engaged with their new checking account would require a different approach and new tools in their onboarding toolkit.
Think Bank’s digital banking numbers looked healthy on the surface. New checking accounts kept coming in. But leadership knew an open account isn’t the same as an engaged customer, and in an environment where margins are thin and deposits move at the tap of a screen, every account that opened and then went quiet was a relationship the bank left on the table.
Without a guided path forward, new customers had no clear next step. They weren’t prompted to fund the account meaningfully, switch their direct deposit, or explore the products that made sense for where they were in their financial life. The digital channel was functioning as a utility, a place to check a balance, when it could have been a storefront for the bank’s full relationship with that customer.
Chief Technology & Innovation Officer Becky Wendland put the ambition simply: give people clarity and confidence from day one. That meant getting accounts set up, funded, and activated fast, and using that early trust as the opening for what came next, from loan pre-approvals to a digital experience tailored to each customer or business.
The solution
A gamified onboarding journey, live on Banno in under 90 days.
Think Bank partnered with Swaystack to design and launch a digital onboarding experience embedded directly inside Jack Henry’s Banno platform, moving from concept to production in under 90 days. Rather than treating onboarding as a one-time welcome, the journey guided customers through the specific actions known to build lasting relationships:
- Funding the account with a meaningful first deposit
- Setting up direct deposit
- Exploring new products and pre-approved offers relevant to that customer
Every prompt appeared where the customer already was, inside the digital banking experience they were already using, rather than in a separate app or a one-off email campaign. That meant the bank could surface the right next step, whether a loan pre-approval or a deposit product, at the exact moment a customer was primed to act.
The impact
Faster activation. Deeper engagement. Real loan volume.
Direct deposit and new money growth. Guided prompts drove 83 verified direct deposit switches, worth $3.2M in annual deposits, alongside an estimated $5.7M in new money deposit accounts. Customers weren’t being acquired from scratch. They were already in the door; they simply needed a reason and a clear next step to go deeper.
Cross-sell lending, unlocked. By surfacing relevant pre-approvals and next-best products at the right moment, Think Bank generated an estimated $11.8M in loan volume originated through cross-sell, deepening relationships with new and existing customers for increased retention and share of wallet.
Engagement that compounds. Customer engagement inside Banno rose 130%, a sign that the digital channel had stopped being a place customers passed through and started being a place they actually returned to.
As Swaystack Co-Founder and CEO Har Rai Khalsa put it: “Community banks like Think Bank prove that engagement is more than a log-in; it’s an opportunity. When onboarding, pre-approvals, and lending are connected through Banno’s flexible platform, the digital channel stops being a back-office utility and starts becoming a storefront for care and growth.”